SOS Graduates 2012-2013 Class

Circle of Influence Members: From left: Reji Varghese, Vivek Mehta, Zarir Sethna, Swapan Dubey, MD, Ajit John

Circle of Influence Members: From left: Reji Varghese, Vivek Mehta, Zarir Sethna, Swapan Dubey, MD, Ajit John

By Farida Hasanali

HOUSTON: SOS incoming President Dr. Swapan Dubey proudly announced the completion and graduation of SOS’ 4th Life and Leadership Series.  The Graduation event hosted at Fratelli’s by the SOS Executive Board on April 13 was attended by close to 100 members, friends, and well-wishers.  The event held a different kind of charge this year.  Past, present and future students mingled with the crowd, each talking to members and supporters about the benefits of the SOS program.

Dr. Archana Laxmisan, President of SOS, thanked the audience and graciously stepped down to hand over the baton to Dr. Swapan Dubey for the upcoming year.  “SOS taught me how to rethink my priorities,” said Dr. Laxmisan.  “Today I am equally focused on my personal and professional goals and I am achieving the things I have always wanted to achieve.  I had to sit myself down, figure out what I wanted and devise a means of getting it.  SOS taught me how.”

Dr. Swapan Dubey accepted the Presidency and briefly spoke about his vision for the SOS program.  “We need to ensure that SOS is a life long learning experience, “said Dr. Dubey.  “We don’t want people to graduate from one year of sessions, and then never been seen again.  That’s not our goal.”

Dr. Dubey called upon current students to express what the SOS experience meant to them.  “When you look at the sky with an untrained eye, all you see is a mass of stars, if you look up at the same sky with the guidance of an astronomer all of a sudden you see galaxies and formations and you recognize the names of several stars.  That’s what SOS did for me…I look at my life every day, SOS helped me see the patterns within it with a focused lens.” said Russell Richard, Director of Leadership and Engagement, Center for Houston’s Future and current SOS student.

Sos2

Graduating Class 2013: From Left: Siddharth Dhar, Zal Sethna, Shafiq Shivji, Swapan Dubey, MD, Gina Patel, Biki Mohindra, Amol Kulkarni, Mitul Patel, Manasi Gokhale, Vignesh Veer, Farida Hasanali, Russell Richard.

The program closed with a thank you from Vivek Mehta, Chairman of SOS.  Vivek recounted both SOS’ and its COI’s 2012-2013 accomplishments and promised exciting events in the second half of 2013 such as an informational event at Dr. Dubey’s emergency clinic and another sophisticated networking encounter at the River Oaks Country Club.

The evening held another surprise for its attendees. Randhir Sahni, President, Llewelyn-Davies Sahni presented his thoughts on life and success.  “Life is not all about accomplishing your financial goals, you have to focus on personal growth and community service, you have to think in terms of “what can I give back to the community.”  Over dinner, Sahni asked each table to contemplate over a question.  “If Life is not about how much money you make and whether you are a successful entrepreneur or corporate executive, then how would you define a life “well-lived” in the context of living in Houston today?”

Each table reported back ideas ranging from supporting the growth of the Houston economy, being good civic inhabitants of Houston, to contributing towards the city’s growth.  On a personal level, several tables agreed giving back was critical to self-fulfillment.  Others expressed the desire to find an optimal work-life balance where they could spend as much time with family as they did at work.

For those not familiar with the parent SOS Organization, SOS (Share Our Secrets), was founded in 2010 as a joint venture between Club24 and NetIP.  The current SOS program consists of four components; the SOS Life and Leadership Series, SOS member speaker series, SOS Connect, and the Circle of Influence.

If you are interested in learning more about any of the SOS components please email us at LearnHow@ shareoursecrets.org. Please mention specifically how you would like to support SOS and its goals to help the next generation succeed at an accelerated pace.